Monday, November 8, 2010

Grand Canyon Sunrise

After reading about it and debating it, Avi and I signed up for a Sunrise Tour of the Grand Canyon. We decided it would be the easiest way to do it and we would probably learn something as well. So, we paid our $20 each, woke up in the pre-coffee dawn, and went to meet our bus and driver at the main building of the Maswik Lodge.

Our driver and tour guide was Bob, a history buff who was also a great host for our 90 minutes of sunrise vistas at three different stops.

The first real highlight of the tour was a close encounter (right on the road) of a male Elk. This is an animal I’ve been wanting to see for several years throughout a couple of trips. It was at this moment I decided the trip had been well worth the $40 we paid, even if the sun decided not to rise that morning.

Of course, as is true of most encounters of this sort, the camera was unavailable and the moment passed before we had the wherewithal to get it out and get some photos. On the plus side, we had wonderful views of the Elk while we weren’t fumbling around trying to find the camera.

We arrived at our first stop about 10 minutes before sunbreak and stood around in the cold – did I mention it was cold? There was frost on our car when we left our room.

At first we all looked east, where the sun would be coming up. Cameras began snapping at its first crowning over the horizon.

But then we began to realize that the real show was on the other side where the sunlight was hitting the formations facing it.

We made three separate stops of about 20 minutes to a half hour each, catching views of the Canyon in optimal photographic light. So, rather than blather on, let me just share some of what we saw that morning.

And a departing photo of the two of us, still cold, but happy and ready for our well-deserved coffee, followed by our departure on to Phoenix via Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, AZ.